


Oh, How Heartless!

by Nhitori



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-05-15 09:45:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5781133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nhitori/pseuds/Nhitori
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico Yazawa gets in an accident while at university, but neglects to inform her old friends.  The remaining μ's members at Otonokizaka High are shocked to learn that thanks to her accident and as a result of their splitting up, Nico fears she's lost her chance at becoming a real idol.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

•You’re Umi Sonoda, right?  
° How did you get my phone number?  
•Don’t worry, I’m not a fan. In fact, because I’m not a fan, I couldn’t text you any earlier.  
°What exactly is going on??  
•Yazawa-san wouldn’t give me the numbers of any of her friends until I could remember their names. I remembered yours, so she gave me your number.  
°...Why were you trying to get our numbers? Did something happen to Nico-chan?  
•Well… Yes. I’m her guidance counselor, and I just found out that she hadn’t informed her family or friends of her recent injury.  
°Injury? Well, I’m sure she would have told us, if it was anything serious… She’s fine, right?  
•Well, contrary to what you seem to think, it is in fact a fairly serious injury. I was shocked to hear she hadn’t gotten in contact with anyone about it. See, she’s lost the ability to walk.

“What!?” Umi shouted out loud, dropping her phone and watching as the screen got its first crack, toppling to the floor of the student council room.

“U-Umi-chan!” Kotori shouted nervously, jumping forward and picking up the phone, handing it back to her friend with concern across her face.

“Are you okay!?” Honoka leaned forward on the desk, corroborating Kotori’s worry. Now every other additional volunteer for the student council was staring at Umi too, though they were all friendly; looking worried rather than baffled or judgmental. After all, the only volunteers willing to put up with the antics of a president like Honoka Kousaka were the same students who had first helped these three on their path to becoming school idols.

“Ah… I’m fine…” Umi spoke shakily as she took her phone back, frowning and looking towards the door, “I just heard some bad news…”

“Do you need to leave early??” Honoka gasped, and Umi gave her a noncommital face in response, “You can, you know! I won’t be upset. The meeting’s almost done anyway, and you seem really shaken up!”

“Thank you, Honoka-chan…” Umi nodded a bit as she stood up, slowly pushing in her chair and grabbing her bag before looking back at her friends. They were Nico’s friends too, so technically they deserved to know, right? But… It would also only upset them, and surely Nico had some reason for not telling anybody directly. Umi was the only one who her guidance counselor had contacted too, so maybe it would be upsetting if anybody else happened to show up.

“Oh, but Umi-chan?” Kotori interrupted again as Umi was midway through the door, “If it was something that we should know, you’d tell us, right?” She sounded so earnest and innocent, which left Umi frowning as she hesitated, then nodded, lying. Those two would buy it, of course; they always did, but it never left her feeling any less guilty about hiding her feelings. Besides, this was for Nico’s sake. There had to be a reason. She was sure of it.

At least it was fairly warm out, but not sweltering, so Umi’s walk to the train station was a pleasant one. Once there she purchased a ticket; luckily for her, the train station in the town she was headed to was actually right next to the university in which Nico was enrolled. It was far enough away, an hour and a half train ride which was a little too much for a daily commute, so she lived in dorms. At least, that was the case last time Umi had spoken to her a couple of months ago… She had to admit that neither she nor any of the others still at Otonokizaka had really kept in touch with the graduates very well after their last concert together. Could that have been…

No, that was impossible. She knew it as soon as she’d thought it; Nico Yazawa was just not that type of person. It couldn’t have been because of this lack of communication that this had happened, although Umi certainly wouldn’t deny it was probably the reason Nico didn’t bother telling any of them… But did she have a falling-out with her mother? The fact that she hadn’t even contacted her family about something like this raised some red flags.

Luckily for Umi, her timing was just in between when most schools let out and the rush hour for commuting employees began, so she was easily able to find a seat on the train, sighing heavily and holding her bag on her lap. An hour and a half… There was no shortening the trip, and an extra ninety minutes probably wouldn’t make any difference in the grand scheme of things, but it still upset Umi to know that a dear friend of hers had been hurt and have no idea how or why. A dear friend… She wanted to call Nico that, yes, but was she really allowed to? They’d hardly spoken a single word to each other in the past two months, and they had only even known each other for about a year…

That didn’t change that Umi cared and was worried, though. Incredibly worried, if she was to be completely honest. This was not in any way okay; all the counselor told her was that Nico couldn’t walk, but was it permanent? How did it happen? How was she being impacted? And most of all, why didn’t she tell anybody!? That was the biggest question of all, and it infuriated her. When the train finally arrived, she was fuming, slinging her back over her shoulder and half-running, half-stomping out of the station and over to the campus. Which dorm was Nico’s again? She couldn’t remember if she’d ever even been told… She pulled her phone back out, ignoring any texts (none were from the guidance counselor) to instead look up a registry.

Nico Yazawa was not the sort to opt out of being put online for any reason, so she was thankfully in the university’s dorm registry. The very existence of it seemed dangerous to Umi, given that anybody could easily stalk someone this way, but at least it was convenient this once. Building A, room 302. With that in mind, Umi immediately made her way over there, shoving her phone back in her bag just the slightest bit more violently than she should have, and she thought she heard a few more bits of the screen breaking off as the corner of the phone smacked into the corner of her hefty math textbook. Hissing in annoyance, she climbed the stairs, then rapped on the door of room 302. There was no response, so she knocked again, harder.

“Come in…” A lethargic but familiar voice called from inside; to hear Nico’s voice that way was unsettling. She’d always in the past been violently cynical or excessively enthusiastic, never quite like this. Umi hesitated a bit more than she would have if that tone had been differently, slowing opening the door and stepping in, though she still had a lecture reasy to go.

“Nico Yazawa! Just what were you thinking, not telling your friends or even your family that you were seriously hurt!? That you can’t walk!? Don’t you think we worry about you! Don’t you think we would have preferred to hear it directly from you, instead of from some guidance counselor who had to wheedle my number out of you…” Her intensity weakened and she trailed off as she actually looked at Nico. Her hair was still pulled up in pigtails, but they were falling out somewhat. She was sitting up in the bottom bunk, hands folded on her lap and wrapped in bandages that looked like they were last changed just a little too long ago. Similar bandages were on her head, almost covering one of her eyes.

Nico looked up, eyes wide, “Umi-chan…?” She asked, breathlessly. Then quickly wiped her eyes, “Ah… Uhm…” She forced a smile and lifted her hands shakily, “N-Nico Nico Nii?”

“That’s not a good answer!” Umi snapped slightly, but then her eyes started watering as she walked over to her friend, putting one hand gently over hers as she returned them to her lap, “Nico-chan… What the hell happened to you…?”

“I…” She turned away, frowning, “It was an accident. I fell off the platform at the subway station… It’s really a miracle, that I survived!” She forced another smile now, “So. Ah… That’s good!”

“Hey. You’re familiar with cities… you’ve been going into Akihabara by yourself since you were young, right? You really think I’m going to believe that you fell off of the platform?” She was breathing heavily as she stared Nico down, trying to calm herself, stop crying and stop getting annoyed; not at Nico, but at the situation. She had always been so good at controlling herself until it came to the safety of her friends.

“Fine…” Nico muttered, looking right back into Umi’s eyes, though now that she’d dried her tears her own were glassy and blank, lacking any sort of sparkle, “I jumped.”

“I don’t believe you,” Umi shot back, tilting her head up and frowning, “If you’re going to lie to me, you may as well have not answered at all.”

“Well,” Nico’s voice dropped a bit as she turned away, staring at the wall, “There are rumors, floating around campus… that I was pushed…”

“Well…” Umi grew softer, dipping her head and then whispering, “Were you?”

“Ehh?” Nico smiled shakily, but not a single one of her usual grins seemed genuine today; not to say they were genuine all the time before, but she was having trouble even keeping up her character right now, “Of course not! After all, who would wanna do such a thing to the ex-number-one idol, Nico Nii?”

“Nico-chan…” Umi sighed, shaking her head, “Why didn’t you tell anybody…?”

“I didn’t want anybody to know,” She shrugged a bit.

“Well then, why did you let your guidance counselor text me? They told me that you gave them my number because they could remember my name-”

“Umi-chan, I haven’t talked to my guidance counselor since she visited me in the hospital right after the accident. She was lying to you. I didn’t want anybody to know, but she found somebody connected to me,” She sighed softly, “Well actually, I would have told you myself, if I could, but…” She pulled her phone out, “I couldn’t.”

“Why… not?” 

“Questions, questions… I’ve answered too many. Answer me something first,” She hesitated a bit, before whispering, “What do the others think?”

“They don’t think anything yet. I didn’t tell them,” Umi gave the answer easily, “I figured you might have a reason for not telling all of us, or for waiting so long to tell me… I wanted to come and see you myself before I got anyone else involved.”

“Thank you…” Nico nodded slowly, then turned on her phone, “I wanted to tell you, though… not right away, but I didn’t mean to keep it a secret quite this long. It’s just that I’m more or less immobile, and my roommate…” She hesitated before continuing, “My roommate took the SIM card out of my phone, and won’t give me the wifi password. It’s just a hunk of junk right now.”

“Why would your roommate do something like that?” Umi questioned, sitting down on the side of the bottom bunk after having been crouching for so long, making murder on her knees and ankles.

“Because she’s terrible?” Nico shrugged as if this was a widely known fact, “Not everyone is as nice as μs or A-RISE, you know…”

“Yeah,” Umi nodded slowly, “I know. But, it’s all right. Nothing’s going to happen while I’m here, at least. Do you want me to spend the night? I didn’t really bring anything, but…”

“You don’t have to,” She shook her head, “But… I would like if you stayed a little while longer. How’s everybody doing, back home?”

“We’re doing fine. Honoka-chan is doing just as great as usual with student council… We all still spend time together, except for Maki-chan. She doesn’t seem to want to spend much time with us anymore… though, she sometimes eats lunch with us, if somebody remembers to directly invite her. I think she wants to pretend that μ’s and everything about it was just… professional relations. I don’t really blame her… it’s sad, like this. Going our separate ways...”

“Eli-chan is back in Russia, and Nozomi-chan’s university is too far away to visit a lot… or at all, now,” Nico mumbled, crossing her arms slowly, “We really are all split up… and on top of that, I can’t feel my legs at all. I guess maybe I never was meant to be an idol, after all…”

“Nico-chan-”

“You… all of μ’s, you’re my only friends, and yet this is the first I’m hearing from you in months. All of you were the only people who could handle me, and now…”

“Hey, hey, don’t worry, okay? If you think that I’m going to leave you alone again now, you’re wrong. I promise, I’ll make a better effort to keep in touch with you. I’ll visit every weekend, I’ll bring the others with me too, if you want.”

“I don’t know…”

“Nico-chan. I’m sorry we haven’t been here for you… but we are now. We’re by your side.”


	2. Chapter 2

“...I didn’t mean to make you feel like you’d abandoned me, Umi-chan. I’m the one who came here, I’m the one who left you behind. I know you’d have answered if I tried to talk to you, I just…” Nico sighed, folding her hands over each other and staring at them, “It’s as much my fault as it is any of yours, I’m not blaming you. What I meant was… before I met you, I was used to being alone. I thought that I could go back to that, but I…”

“Nico-chan, you shouldn’t need to go back to that. Not now, not ever. Nobody should be alone…” Umi sighed, placing her hands over Nico’s once more, “I’ve always been a loner, but Honoka and Kotori were with me all along. Without those two… Well, if I’m to be completely honest, without those two I never would have discovered how happy I could be. I’ll graduate, I’ll take over my family’s business, I’ll do everything that I should, but I’ll always have the memory of μ's. Being on stage, performing with you and all of the others… I was embarrassed at first, but you know. It’s important to me…”

“Me too,” Nico agreed, turning her head to look at the wall, “The times I spent with μ's were the best times of my life, honestly…”

“With a background like this, I’m sure you could have made it as a solo idol, Nico-chan. So what are you doing in university? You, er… Were never very good at schoolwork. I wouldn’t expect this from you, so why are you here?” Umi questioned with a sweeping glance around the dorm. Hm, at least it was clean. However awful this roommate was, at least she didn’t leave Nico to sit in squalor through the day.

“I had to fall back on my second choice. The backup plan they made us make back in middle school…” She chuckled with a degree of soft bitterness, “Ah, you know, I put ‘idol’ for all three of my choices at first, until my teacher told me I needed to think of another option.”

“Well, that still doesn’t explain why you decided to go through with the backup plan. Forgive me if I’m mistaken, but I don’t believe you even tried at all to go into anything performance related since our final live… I can’t understand this, Nico-chan.”

“It’s not that strange,” She shrugged a bit, “After all. μ's taught me a lot of things, you know. And, I learned that… I learned that I can’t shine on my own. Nobody looks up to just one star, Umi-chan. They look through the sparkling skies for constellations. On a stage by myself, nobody would have cared. I’d be nothing, without you,” She forced a smile, “And I guess it was fate anyway. I haven’t got the chance now, to ever go up on a stage again!”

“Don’t say things like that, Nico-chan,” Umi frowned, reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder, comforting, “We ended μ's because it wouldn’t possibly be the same without you, and the other third years too. If we were all graduating together, maybe we could have kept it going, but it just wouldn’t have worked before. μ's is μ's, and it couldn’t be that way without every member… and every member is spectacular. Nico-chan, when we started we always said we would never last a minute as professional idols. I still think that’s true, but you,” Umi looked away, reclaiming her hand to hide her face with it, “I’ve seen your determination. You’ve been trying for so long it would be a great travesty for you to give up now.”

“But my l-”

“Who cares about your legs!?” Umi snapped, dropping her hand and whirling around to look Nico in the eyes, now able to pass off the reddening of her face as some form of anger, “The Nico Yazawa that I knew back at Otonokizaka would never give up, she’d never let anything stop her! Even if you can’t dance, can’t perform on a stage, it doesn’t change your ability to sing, or the emotion you can show in your face! No matter what happens to you, I’m certain you’ll always find a way to make people all around the world smile!”

“U-Umi-chan…” Nico stammered, meeting her gaze wide-eyed and shocked at the speech she’d just been given, “Why… why is this so important to you…?”

“Because I know that it’s important to you, Nico-chan. You’re a good liar, but it takes one to know one,” She continued, but backed off a bit and looked away again, “You can pretend all you like, that you’re fine with giving up on your dreams. You can pretend you aren’t crushed by the thought of failure without all of us there to help hold you up, but I know that you can do it. I know you can fit into the spotlight and I know that if you don’t try, you’ll be miserable. And I know that we’ll all help you. If we knew, that you were struggling, we always would have. We care about you, Nico-chan. We were more than group members. We were friends. That’s not going to change, ever. We all love you very much.”

“Umi...Chan…” Nico mumbled, gripping the sides of the bedsheets and staring down at her own lap, head at a ninety degree angle as her hair covered her face. She was choked up as she tried to speak again, “I… I know, I know that dreams die… I’ve always known that… I’m just so happy that I got to be an idol for a short time… And if it’s impossible now, I can handle that, you know… I know you want me to be happy, because I want the same for you, but… sometimes people just… not everyone can be happy…”

“Nico-chan…” Umi trailed off, then froze. She was certain, proud of her words; if Nico really had only become discouraged by the dissolution of μ's and by her subsequent injury, then Umi’’s speech should have at least convinced her to accept help. In this case… there were things that she wasn’t being told here. Other factors to put Nico into such a state, “Please… what’s going on? Can you tell me?”

“I…” She tilted her head to the side and bit her lip, “I can’t. I’m sorry. But, if you want to, you can tell the others what happened. I guess that it’s fine if they know. Or… maybe, they should know. They deserve to, or something.”

“I agree entirely. They’re your friends too, and you and I, Nico-chan… we both keep enough secrets as it is, don’t we?” She shrugged, then tried to give a reassuring smile, “That’s one way it turns out, that we’re alike, you understand? We hide a lot of things. It’s easier, to pretend like your emotions don’t exist. To hide any problems you have, we’re both too prideful for our own good. Like when you didn’t want us to learn that you took care of your little siblings, for example… this is like that, isn’t it? You want us to see your best side, to think of you as somebody to be admired, but, you know…” She raised a hand to her own cheek, “At least to me, it’s much more admirable that you would work hard to support your family…”

“Yeah…” Nico nodded slowly, “I promised them… I promised that when I got back, I’d make them all sorts of delicious meals with the new job I’d get. That I should use the scholarship I earned, to be able to make more money and treat them to nice things… but now, how am I supposed to do that?”

“The same way that you _are_ going to share your smile again. With the help of your friends, and some hard work. Just like always-” Umi was cut off midsentence by the sound of the door opening, and she turned to see a rather tall and intimidating girl in the doorway.

“Nii-chan!” The girl shouted with an exasperated tone as she held a hand out behind her, then stomped further into the room. When she moved away from the door, Umi could see a man standing in the hallway, but then turned her attention back to this woman, “Who the Hell is this!? What’s she doing here, and is she _paying_ you?”

“Izuna-san…” Nico muttered, narrowing her eyes and turning to look at her roommate, “This is my friend, Sonoda Umi. She came to visit me when she heard I was injured. And, no. She’s not paying for my time…”

“What is this, about paying…?” Umi questioned, getting to her feet and glaring daggers at Izuna. Though she was shorter, she managed to command a certain presence anyhow, “As wonderful as Nico-chan’s company is, I can’t say that I much like the sound of that… Izuna.”

“Mnh…” Izuna let out an odd sound, adjusting the collar of her shirt and glancing away from Umi’s withering gaze. The way she’d said the name, too; without an honorific if they’d only just met, was rude in most contexts, but here it was somehow warped into an intimidation tactic.

“It’s not important…” Nico muttered, the brief bit of opposition she’d earlier shown now fallen back, “Umi-chan, I think it’s probably best if you go home… It’s getting close to dinnertime, after all. I’m sure you’re having something nice…”

Umi hesitated to back down, but did look over at Nico and saw in her face some sort of sincerity that she couldn’t quite place. It was an obedient fear, but Umi realized in that another truth. Now was not the proper time to try and deal with that. If Umi’s suspicions were correct, then that man in the hallway would step in if a physical spat were to break out, and she wasn’t sure that she could take him. So she picked up her bag from the floor where she’d placed it, and made her way out with one last dirty look at Izuna, and another at the man as she passed him for good measure.

This intimidating aura must have followed her onto the train, because while it was rather crowded, people still opted to stand rather than to sit down next to her. Hm, who knew that the best way to fend off unwanted attention on a train was to exude a strong feeling of fury the entire time? On the way there, her anger had been rooted in worry, an annoyance that sprung from a friend making her feel concern. This fury came with worry as well, but it was now directed at people she didn’t care about; the concern was for Nico, but the anger towards that roommate of hers… Izuna, her name was. That man infuriated her as well, but not quite to the same extent; after all, he wasn’t living there. Wasn’t the one who was perpetuating Nico’s condition of hopelessness so directly.

When she arrived back at the station, she was surprised to be greeted by a pair of familiar faces seated on a bench. They both noticed her at the same time, and waved hesitantly. With a sigh, she walked over, “And just what are you two doing here?”

“Uh? Well…” Honoka started, “Kotori-chan and I were worried about you, Umi-chan! And we knew that this is the connecting train you need to take to get from the longer line, to the one that goes near your house, so we waited at the station after we went to your home and found out you weren’t there!”

“You must have been waiting a long time… the student council meeting let out two hours ago, right?” Umi questioned, sighing as she approached her friends, the intimidating aura finally falling away from her and some of the tension leaving her shoulders, though the information still weighed heavily on her.

“Ah, don’t worry about it!” Kotori assured her, waving her hands in the air in front of her, “Honoka-chan started playing Fire Emblem, so I just watched her the whole time! There’s an outlet right next to this bench, too, so it’s really not a problem at all!”

“Well… I’m glad that you weren’t just bored the whole time, but you really didn’t need to do this… I’m sure there’s better ways that you could have spent your time…” Umi frowned, holding the side of her arm and looking away.

“Not me! I would have just played this game at home, if I didn’t come here! I told Kotori-chan that she could go and I’d just pass the info on, but she insisted! We’re here because we want to be, Umi-chan, but,” She puffed up her cheeks, “If you still feel bad that we waited for you, make it up to us by telling us what happened, what’s going on! Since it wasn’t a family emergency, that makes it our business!”

“A family emergency would be your business too,” Umi rolled her eyes, but then looked at them again, “I’ll tell you, but… Not just yet. Are the both of you free for dinner?” As she said this she pulled out her phone, and a nod from the both of them had her dialling her mom’s number, “Mom? Know how we got hot pot ingredients so I could have some friends over during the weekend? Well, could we do that tonight instead, possibly, since the weekend is tomorrow?” She waited a moment, then smiled softly, “Ah, thank you!”

“So we’re going to your house for dinner, Umi-chan?” Kotori asked, lifting a finger to her chin and tilting her head, “And, sorry for overhearing, but your mom invited us to stay the night also? That would be nice, but what does it have to do with the bad news you got earlier?”

“Oh, you’ll see, I’m not finished making calls yet,” She explained as she entered another number, “Hanayo-chan, are you free for dinner? There’s going to be hot pot at my house, if you are. Oh, and is Rin-chan with you? She’s also invited,” Another pause, “Wonderful, I’ll see you there…”

“Oh, I see!” Honoka shouted suddenly, “Umi-chan, you want to tell all of us, don’t you? But what about Maki-chan? How will you get her to agree? She only accepts our lunch invitations sometimes after all! I asked her to come to the arcade with me since I used to go with Nico-chan and she just completely blew me off! There’s no way you’ll-” Honoka was cut off by Umi’s voice, seeing as while she’d gone off on her tirade Umi was already dialing the number.

“Maki-chan, thank you for picking up. I have something to talk to you about at my house, we’re having hot pot. Before you refuse, I have to tell you that it’s about Nico-chan,” And there was a long silence, by Umi, from the phone, and from both of the other girls standing nearby, whose moods immediately dropped. They were worried what the bad news could be, of course, but they hadn’t even stopped to think that it could relate to one of their other friends. After a while, Umi turned back to Honoka and Kotori, “She’ll be there. Now then. Let’s get going,” And she turned without hesitation, immediately walking forward in the direction of her house.

Honoka and Kotori hesitated a moment, but then both dashed to catch up with her before trying to walk in step, and ending up needing to go at an odd semi-sprint. When Umi walked with purpose, she really was hard to keep up with; rarely did people need to try, given that her purposeful walks were often towards a member of μ's, or else a short stride of a few feet that needed no matching. 

However, it did serve out that purpose it held quite well; despite the fact that Rin and Hanayo were closer to Umi’s home than the train station was, the three of them still arrived there first, though Honoka couldn’t help but overexaggerate her fatigue in the form of leaning over and holding her knees, panting softly. Umi didn’t even acknowledge her, though, so she quickly stopped to keep up again as Umi opened the door and led the other two inside. Though they’d beaten Rin and Hanayo, they hadn’t managed to make it before Maki.

“What’s this you need to say about Nico-chan?” Maki demanded from where she was already seated in a chair at the kitchen table, lifting her chin to look down her nose at… well, the floor, given that she was sitting and the others were standing, but she gave off the effect she was meaning to anyhow, “Is she returning home from university? I have to say, that’s the best case scenario, but your tone made it sound as if it’s something much more worrying. Tell me.”

“Maki-chan,” Kotori giggled softly, turning her head to the side, “Umi-chan can’t answer your questions yet, you know. We’re waiting for the others. If it’s about Nico-chan, after all, we should all hear it… Can’t you stand to be in our company long enough for that?”

“I absolutely can!” Maki protested, turning her head away in embarrassment, “We _used_ to be friends, anyway. It’s not like I find you abhorrent. I’m in such a haste to find out this news because I’m worried.”

“...Sorry,” Kotori whispered, “It’s just, you accept our invitations so rarely, and we had to tell you that there was news about Nico-chan just to get you here… sometimes, it’s easy to think that you hate us all, Maki-chan…”

“I don’t hate you! I just don’t understand why you would still want to spend time with me, now that μ's is over. You approached me to be your composer, after all. Without music tying us together, there’s no reason for us to be friends…” She sighed, “I cherish the memories we have, I truly do, but you have to understand that us nine would have never been so close without μ's to tie us together, and I would really rather you didn’t learn that lesson the hard way.”

“...Maki-chan…” Honoka mumbled, staring at her, “So you just… you don’t think we’d be friends now and you’d rather we left things on a positive note? Is that what you’re saying? That’s…” She shook her head then frowned, raising her voice, “That’s absolutely ridiculous! μ's was what brought us all together, but we never could have got as far as we did without the bonds that we shared! It wasn’t μ's which made us great friends, it was our friendships that made μ's great! That’s why we’re all here now, Maki-chan! None of us have seen or even heard from Nico-chan in months, but we’re still her friends and we’re still worried about her! The same goes for any member of μ's!”

“Whoa, Honoka-chan! Well-put, nya!” Another voice joined in, belonging to none other than Rin Hoshizora, who was taking her shoes off behind the group, “Ah, but what’s this about Nico-chan? I thought that we were here for hot pot?”

“Ah, Umi-chan! You didn’t tell them…?” Kotori questioned, concerned, “Oh, I don’t want to ruin their moods…”

“Told us what?” Hanayo asked as she followed Rin inside, closing the door behind herself.

“Well, we’re all here now, Umi-chan,” Maki spoke again, “Unless you invited Nozomi-chan, but I doubt you would keep us all waiting for so long. Why not jump right in and tell us what you have to say, hm?”

Umi looked around at all her friends, who were now staring at her in anticipation. She sighed and crossed her arms, staring at the floor, anywhere but at them. She didn’t want to see their faces when she told them, “Nico-chan… was in an accident, several months ago. Out of pride, she didn’t want to tell us right away; but then, her roommate sabotaged her phone so that she couldn’t get in contact. It took her guidance counselor tracking down my phone number for me to hear that she’d been in this accident… so I immediately took a train out to see her, which is when I found out about the situation with her phone.”

“But, why would sabotaging her cell phone stop her? Nico-chan’s called all of us from payphones before, before Maki-chan got her that phone, she definitely knows our numbers…” Hanayo was the first to respond, with another question, brought up with hesitation, “Unless… did the accident give her amnesia…?”

“No,” Umi shook her head, sighing, “Not amnesia. She’s… more or less, immobile. I don’t know the details except that she can’t feel her legs anymore, but I don’t know exactly what the physiological cause for it is…”

“...Oh no,” Rin started, then raised her hands to her face, lip wobbling, “She, she can’t use her legs anymore? That means that she can’t dance… oh no, oh no… poor Nico-chan… How is she doing…?”

“Not well at all,” Umi answered, tucking some hair back behind her ear then keeping her hand in that spot, “Which doesn’t sound like the Nico-chan we all knew, does it? There were a lot of things she’d give up on, but she never let those things get her down, and she’d never let something like this stop her from pursueing her dreams… which is why I think that there’s something else going on too…”

“Does it by any chance have anything to do with the roommate who supposedly sabotaged her phone?” Maki questioned, twirling her hair with conviction, “What sort of person would do something like that, anyway? What a damn idiot…”

“Umi-chan,” Kotori spoke again, raising a finger in the air with a deep frown, “Is there any chance, maybe, that this roommate is pressuring Nico-chan into compensated dating?”

“Eh…?” Umi lifted her head to look at Kotori, finding her expression serious and concerned, “Kotori-chan, why would you guess something like that?”

“Oh, was I wrong…?” She asked, sounding somewhat relieved, “It’s just, I heard about this sort of thing happening lately, on the news, like it’s some sort of new fad… there’s nothing technically illegal about it, apparently, but it’s really skeezy… that people in a position of power over other people, will use them to make extra money for themself through something like blackmail, or just the inability of the victim to fight back…”

“You weren’t wrong. You’re completely right; I do think that’s what’s going on with Nico-chan and her roommate. I’m guessing that… there was some sort of blackmail, but Nico-chan started talking about dropping out and going home, so Izuna-san… that’s her roommate’s name, went another step too far and pushed Nico-chan off the train platform. Maybe she wanted to express her annoyance, or maybe her intention all along was to cripple Nico-chan so she could continue using her… in any case, it’s absolutely disgusting,” Umi sneered, putting her hands on her hips.

“That’s… that’s so awful!” Honoka shouted, much louder than she should have been with everyone concerned standing so close to her, “Umi-chan, we have to do something, we just have to! We can’t let this happen! We can’t… we can’t let somebody hurt Nico-chan!”

“Don’t you think I know that!?” Umi turned her head sharply, words harsher than she intended. She took a deep breath before continuing, calmer, “I’m going to start visiting her as often as I can, for one thing. If I get the chance, I’ll stand up to her roommate. I nearly did today, but… Nico-chan wanted me to go home, and there was a man there who probably would have gotten violent if I had behaved as I would have liked to towards Izuna.”

“Well, you can’t expect to do this alone. You have archery club, after all. As often as you’re able to is not in any way every day, and if we’d like to keep her _safe_ then the most intelligent course of action would be to have somebody there with her at all times,” Maki interrupted, “But seeing as we are all high school students, that’s implausible. We can’t possibly do that; even if we all worked together, we could only go see her in the afternoons. I’ll ask my father to arrange a bodyguard for h-”

“Maki-cha-a-an…” Rin cut her off, groaning, then strode over and put an arm around her shoulders, “Did you even listen to watch Umi-chan said, nya? If it was just that Nico-chan was injured too badly, then of course that would work, but she’s also being blackmailed! If we sent a bodyguard there, then Nico-chan’s secrets would be revealed to the world, nya! That would just be horrible! Plus, what if this ~Izuna~ creep manages to sway the bodyguard’s loyalties?”

“We could do without the onomotopaeia,” Maki grumbled, leaning forward on the table and glaring around at the other girls, “Well, fine, maybe that’s not the best plan, but what do you suggest we do? We can’t leave this only to Umi-chan, can we…?”

“I, uh, I might have an idea…” Hanayo spoke up, softly, but nonetheless making herself heard, “It might scare Nico-chan’s roommate, or overwhelm Nico-chan, if we started all going there… I think that, right now, she must trust Umi-chan the most of anybody. So Umi-chan should be in charge, and… Nico-chan can move back here, but it takes a while to clear that sort of thing with universities… we should just support Umi-chan and do our best to help Nico-chan once she’s back in the area… I just, I don’t want to risk making things worse for her by trying too hard to help her, do you understand?”

“I do, nya!” Rin answered, “It makes sense! And once Nico-chan is back here, Kayo-chin, we can go out for ramen again, the three of us, nya! I bet she’ll want to spend lots of fun time with her friends, once she starts feeling better! I really really hope, that we can help her get out of there… It sounds like she’s having a really awful time…”

“We’re going to get her out of there. And, we’re going to help her become an idol,” Umi spoke again with firm resolve, “We can’t just settle at saving her from a bad situation. We have to do our best to make our dreams come true. Because we’re her friends. Because we’re μ's. Because, that’s just…”

“That’s what we do,” Honoka and Kotori said in unison, stepping closer to Umi and putting one hand each on her shoulders. The other three agreed in the form of slow, meaningful nods, and Umi let a smile across her face. A soft one, but it was there nonetheless. She and all the others had made a grave mistake, leaving Nico by herself. It was time to remedy that.


	3. Chapter 3

“Sonoda-san.”

When Umi heard that at four in the morning, it was startling, but not so altogether unexpected that she was unable to keep herself from screaming. The matter that it was her last name stated so firmly rather than a confused ‘Umi-chan?’ immediately tipped her off to who was asking. She frowned and turned around, leaning back against the table to lock eyes with Maki, “Even after spending the night with two thirds of μ's, you’d still prefer to distance yourself?”

“Last night was a fluke. Now that μ's is finished, my involvement with music is as well, as are our relations to each other as professiona-”

“Maki-chan,” Umi cut her off with a harsh glare, gripping the edge of the table just a bit too hard, “I understand what you’re trying to do. I really do. Even with Honoka and Kotori, for a long time, I didn’t want them to see certain sides of me. I didn’t want to care for them so much that losing them would hurt me, but people aren’t made to do that, Maki-chan. Stop trying to play it cool. The more you push us away, the more you’ll regret it one day.”

“U-Umi-chan…” Maki muttered, stepping backwards and turning her head to the side, “It’s far too early to talk about this. Especially with you. My question is what you’re doing,” She quickly recovered and locked eyes with Umi again, “If I remember correctly, it takes quite an effort to wake you, and you’re hardly pleasant afterwards. What are you doing up at this hour when there’s no training or anything to do?”

“Hm?” Umi tilted her head, then frowned, looking down at the floor, “Isn’t that obvious? I’m going to see Nico-chan again. I do have a silent alarm clock; it’s this,” She pointed out a small clip attached to her ear, “I forgot to take it off. It vibrates right on my ear and, therefore, wakes me without disturbing anybody else. Sometimes if it starts storming or gets suddenly dark, archery students will need to stay the night. Or Honoka will. I need some option to wake up early without bothering anyone else.”

“Impressive consideration. Of course, you did make one mistake in nearly tripping over my misplaced arm,” Maki hesitated and seemed to turn a bit red, as if she’d been taught in proper sleeping technique and was embarrassed to admit she’d had her arm in an unusual position, “Which woke me up. So I of course came to ask what you’re up to. I thought it might be something like this…”

“Please, don’t wake the others, I-”

“You want to go alone, I’m sure,” Maki interrupted, then strode over and sat down on top of the table next to her, “Acceptable enough. Explain.”

“Huh?” Umi questioned, turning to face the girl beside her now.

“Come on then. Explain. Tell me why, exactly, you want to go alone. Put into words why you felt the need to wake up at four in the morning to go see her,” Maki leaned forward, making the space uncomfortable as she looked straight through Umi, “The memories I have with Nico-chan are very precious to me. The only time in my life that I’ve ever had or probably ever will have a friendly rival, do you understand? There’s no way I’ll let you go to see her without me unless you can come up with a very good reason.”

“Do you realize you’re asking me to do the impossible, Maki-chan?” Umi questioned, inching back a bit but dropping the tension in her shoulders, “I’ve never been good at expressing the way that I feel, even you can’t deny that you’ve known me long enough to be well aware of that. I get embarrassed easily, and when I care about somebody that just comes out as angry tears when they worry me…”

“Hm? Well, pardon my language, Umi-chan, but I’m calling bullshit,” She turned her nose up and looked away, “You say these things, but it’s obvious. Just because you can’t speak your feelings doesn’t mean you can’t put them into words. I’m more intimately familiar with the lyrics you’ve written than anybody else, needing to compose notes for them… and, for you, it’s vice versa, isn’t it? When I compose the song before any lyrics…”

“Songs are completely different, Maki-chan…” Umi shook her head slowly, folding her hands in her lap, “That’s poetry. Poetry to make lyrics for our idol group. If I write about love, then it’s only for the sake of the music-”

“Love? Why, Umi-chan,” Maki smirked, twirling a bit of hair between her fingers, “I never said a thing about love. Only about feelings. Such as the feelings you poured into that last song I wrote…” She chuckled a bit, “Not a word about love at all. So is that how you feel about Nico-chan?”

“No!” She snapped, blushing, but then shrugged and buried her hands between her knees, “I… don’t know. I really can’t explain how I feel towards Nico-chan, at all. It’s something I really can’t grasp. All I know for sure is that… I let her down. We all did. I need to make sure none of this happens again, I need to protect her. What Kotori said about how Nico-chan’s situation might be, it’s absolutely disgusting…” Umi wrinkled her nose, “I’m furious thinking that anybody could possibly do that to Nico-chan. I want to rescue her and I want to keep her safe. She’s a very precious person to me and I… I just feel this horrible tightness in my chest when I think about anybody harming her, I...”

“You love her,” Maki said simply, kicking her legs a bit with her feet a few inches from the floor as she sat on the table like this. A silence fell between the two of them before Maki turned to look at Umi again and noted that tears were streaming down her cheeks, “That’s it, Umi-chan. You do. That’s what love is, after all, it’s an indescribable feeling towards somebody. An emotion that’s utterly senseless but somehow altogether sensible at the same time. You don’t know when it started or how long you’ve had it, like some sort of dormant sickness, but it’s there. You can bury it up, you can run from it, but you cannot destroy it. Only the person you love can do that. Until you are in love with each other and learn if it works or if it doesn’t, there’s no way to move past the feeling. You might think it’s gone until you see them again, but it will remain unless the person herself gives you reason to fall out of love.”

“That’s poetic, Maki-chan,” Umi sniffled, lifting a hand to work on wiping her tears away, “Where did you learn something like that…?”

“Kira Tsubasa,” Maki shrugged simply, looking up at the ceiling, “And a few others. Kira-chan taught me how to fall out of love. Others have taught me that the relationship I had… must be the only way there is to get over that feeling. So I wonder, if it’s better to just hold onto the feeling than to act on it and risk losing it forever?”

“Maki-chan… are you in love?” Umi questioned, kicking her own feet as well, dissonant in timing to Maki’s small kicks.

“Maybe I am,” She sighed, turning her head and rubbing her neck, “I’ve tried all sorts of things but I can’t seem to get over myself. I tried not talking to them, I tried making myself fall for somebody else, I tried all sorts of things to stop loving them… After all, there’s not even any way for me to act on these feelings. But, I think, Umi-chan… that Nico-chan might be the right sort of person for you. The two of you didn’t talk to each other a particularly large amount compared to some of us, but… well, she really admired you. That much was obvious. She was grateful to you for working so hard, for keeping Honoka-chan in line and keeping everyone on track…”

“What do you mean?” Umi asked, frowning, “And, your wording was strange there. Earlier you referred to an ambiguous lover as ‘her’ but now you’re using more neutral language…”

“I mean that Nico-chan credits you with allowing μ's to participate in the next Love Live. You’re the one who convinced Honoka-chan to continue on, to call Kotori-chan back from the airport… At every step of the way, you were a force driving μ's forward, Umi-chan, and I’m only seeing this because Nico-chan told me all about it. I think, maybe, she just thought you were a bit too cool for her to ever approach personally…”

“...You didn’t answer my other question, Maki-chan,” Umi took an effort to change the topic, new information whirling in her mind. Nico admired her? That didn’t make sense. After all, she admired Nico; how could admiration be a two-way street anyway? It operated on the concept of superiority after all, and somebody acknowledging that superiority- but maybe, that was just another part of love that Umi had yet to understand?

“Oh, that. Well, I didn’t intend for it to be neutral language. I suppose since I know who you’ve got a crush on it’s only fair if you know mine,” Maki sighed, picking at her nails, “I intended for it to be plural language. See, it seems that try as I might to avoid this, my classmates… classes with them are simply too much exposure to their infuriatingly cute faces. Rin-chan and Hanayo-chan… are altogether too appealing. It wouldn’t surprise me if half the class was in the same boat as me…”

“I see… You do know that avoiding all of us isn’t the solution to that, right?” Umi leaned a bit closer to her, “If you really do feel that way about Rin-chan and Hanayo-chan, but you push us all away, you’ll lose them and all of us forever. Maybe I’m unsure on these feelings; I understand attraction, but never quite to this extent… However, I do know that the idea of never seeing Nico-chan again… Terrifies me. So I’d think you would feel the same about those two…”

“Umi-chan,” Maki froze, lifting a hand to hide the deep frown on her face, “I never quite thought about it like that. Of course not… But I’m frightened, don’t you understand? If I get too close to them, I might let it slip, how I feel… and what would that do, then? I’d rather never see those two again than have them hate me.”

“Maki-chan?” Another voice broke through their conversation, and they both whipped their heads around to see who it could be. Standing in the doorway to the next room was Hanayo, with a death grip on own arms, face flushed, “I, I, uh, I’m so sorry, but, uh-”

“Kayo-chin and I heard the whoooooole thing!” Rin interrupted, pouncing onto Hanayo’s back and causing her to stumble a few steps into the room, whereupon Rin just turned her head and gave Maki a small smile, “Who knew that the two of us were really such a power couple, nya? Or maybe that’s just you, Maki-chan?”

“I!” Maki stammered, freezing up where she sat and finding her face even redder than Hanayo’s, unable to even move to look away in her spectacular fluster.

“What’s all the noise about…?” One more voice piped in, and Rin hopped off of Hanayo’s back to peer back into the room only to see Kotori rubbing her eyes groggily, “It’s so early…”

“Sorry to wake you!” Rin apologized, but it was so loud that it only stirred Honoka as well, and she bit her lip before apologizing again and explaining, “Umi-chan and Maki-chan woke up really early and started having deep emotional girl talk! So of course Kayo-chin and I eavesdropped! Actually I eavesdropped and just made sure she didn’t rat me out… But! The point is that Kayo-chin and I are about to confess our deep undying love for Maki-chan, nya!”

“It’s about time…” Honoka mumbled before grabbing a pillow from one of the other mattresses and holding it over her ear as she rolled over to go back to sleep, although Kotori chuckled and stood up.

“S-stop teasing me!” Maki protested, finally gathering the composure to turn away and cross her arms, though the heat in her face had only gotten worse.

“Teasing?” Hanayo questioned, frowning as she walked a bit closer, adjusting her glasses. After their last concert she’d started wearing them again, as they were more comfortable than contacts when it came down to it, “Rin-chan’s being melodramatic but…”

“I’m not teasing, nya!” Rin interrupted again, running past Hanayo to stand on the other side of Maki, “Really! Maaaaaaaki-chan!” She insisted, then slammed her hands down on the table and hoisted herself up to kiss Maki’s cheek before giving her another smile, “Come on! Don’t you know you’re not the only one who can love two people at once?”

“Th-that’s right, Maki-chan! Just because Rin-chan and I have always been together as friends or otherwise…” Hanayo looked down at the floor, shifting her feet, “I’ve… liked you since you first started helping me to sing better… when you looked me in the eyes and got me to sing scales with the same power as you and your beautiful voice… my chest got all tight… and I…” She scrunched her face up before getting a bit too loud on the next words, “I have a really big crush on you, Maki-chan! I love you!”

“See, Maki-chan?” Rin was now hanging off of her and looking up with that darn :3c face of hers, “Wanna know about me? It was the minute we agreed that Kayo-chin really needed to be an idol! I thought for a while, that we’d have to compete for her, but then I realized… Why not both, nya?”

“...Ehhh?” Maki couldn’t come up with any better response, just lifting her hands to hide her face, “This is nonsense! I must be dreaming, or it’s some sort of joke-”

“You’re just mad that we heard you confess you liked us so the courtship couldn’t be full with ‘it’s not like I like you or anything, baka!’” Rin giggled, nuzzling Maki’s shoulder, “Dont worry Maki-chan! I’m sure there will be lots of other chances for you to play tsundere with us!”

“Hmm,” Kotori spoke again, “This isn’t really surprising. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for you two! But… well, I saw it coming from a mile away! I’m more curious why Umi-chan is up this early?”

“Oh, that’s because-” Umi started, but was interrupted.

“She woke up to go see Nico-chan again,” Maki was composed again, giving her sweet smile that came over her when she explained things she was fond of, like Santa’s visitations to her winter vacation home, “Don’t worry, Umi-chan. I’m sure nobody’s going to object now. You should get going if you’re going to catch the train. This early, the next one doesn’t come for another hour, and I’m sure you don’t want to delay?”

“Oh! Oh no!” Kotori spoke again, shaking her head and holding her cheeks, “I completely forgot! Umi-chan, the train stops along the way, right? I’ll go along with you for a few stops!! I completely forgot that I have to work this morning…”

“Hm? Oh, of course,” Umi nodded, “You’ve got work? Are you back at the cafe in Akihabara again? That’s just one stop away, so you should be fine.”

“Mm, no…” Kotori frowned, shaking her head, “They wouldn’t hire me again after I quit to focus on preparing for the Love Live. They said they’d put a good word in for me anywhere else I applied, but that they hired enough new girls in my absence that even if I was the best employee they had for a while, they didn’t need more help. It’s fine though! The Maid Minnalinsky name really helped me to land another job, even if it’s a bit further away!”

“But…” Hanayo pouted, glancing away, “Didn’t you take that job in order to become a better idol? Why do you need it now? Thanks to us, Otonokizaka is doing great, and your other mom’s teaching job was always stable, right? Your household income should be fine…”

“Oh, well,” Kotori kept smiling, but a shadow seemed to fall across her face as she spoke, “That’s the thing. I’m not really… living with my moms anymore. But,” She giggled, waving her hands in front of her, “I won’t bother you with that story! All you really need to know is I need a little bit of an outside income now! So, will we get going, Umi-chan?”

“Right,” Umi nodded, grabbing the bag she’d put together of a sort of care package for Nico, and turning to go, gesturing for Kotori to follow, as she did. Umi wasn’t sure why Kotori had slept in her clothes, but it did make it easier to get going. The walk to the station was silent, but neither of them could really stand to stay silent as they sat on the train, alone in the car except for a few sleeping drunks near the doors.

“So, Kotori… you too,” Umi spoke soft, holding her bag closer to herself and refusing to make eye contact with her friend.

“Me too? What do you mean, me too?” She leaned forward, blinking in confusion and trying to look at Umi’s face, but finding herself unable to identify an expression.

“Nico-chan isn’t the only one who’s gotten worse off, just under my nose…” As she held the bag against her chest, she let her hair fall over the front of it, and she was trembling, “Kotori-chan… when we were competing in the Love Live, the worst things that happened… were Honoka overworking herself, you trying to go to America, and the decision to disband after the third years graduated. When we were school idols… it was as if we lived in another world, where things like this wouldn’t happen… Where problems weren’t real...”

“Umi-chan…” Kotori whispered, concern lacing her words.

“Who’s next!?” She snapped both her voice and her head up, showing Kotori the expression she’d searched for, but not _what_ expression she wanted. A violent, crying face, “Will we found out that Eli-chan died in Russia?? Is Nozomi-chan a drug addict? What about Honoka-chan!? Is she suffering too? Kotori-chan! Why!? Why is this happening!?” She shook her head, screaming loud enough to wake up the sleeping drunks, “Is this what life is!? A whole mess of horrible awful things!? Why can’t I… Why couldn’t I protect you!? And Nico-chan!? Why can’t I just…” She took a few deep breaths, trailing off into tears which she wiped with her wrists, “Save the people I care about…?”

“Umi-chan,” Kotori leaned over and hugged her, “You’re always so worried about all of us… you always have been. Heh, remember when Honoka-chan took the wrong train in New York…? You were so afraid, but… it turned out fine in the end, didn’t it? I’m sure all of this will too. Maybe life is like this. Maybe it’s full of bad things, but there’s good things too, Umi-chan! I’m sure Eli-chan and Nozomi-chan are doing just fine, and just think about this morning with Maki-chan! There’s nothing for you to feel bad about. Everybody has secrets, Umi-chan… and that’s fine. Sometimes they’re good ones, sometimes they’re bad ones, but you can’t stop bad things from happening to people forever. Luck runs out someday… but I’m sure it will all be okay. Life goes on, Umi-chan!”

“Isn’t this pathetic…” Umi mumbled, leaning against Kotori, “You’re consoling me even though nothing’s even happened to me. I should be the one comforting you, you’re the one who’s in a bad situation…”

“Hm? No Umi-chan! It’s not pathetic at all!” Kotori shook her head, “Not for anybody who knows you. If you didn’t get all hard on yourself over these things, you wouldn’t really be Umi-chan… I think that it’s great, how much you care about everyone… Besides,” She chuckled a bit, “Better you get like this in front of me than in front of Nico-chan! How embarrassing that would be!”

“I just… I have no right to be this upset…” She mumbled, holding her hands in close to her own chest, “When nothing’s happened to me…”

“Well, now you’re just lying,” Kotori shook her head, still with that sweet smile, “Maybe nothing’s happening to you right now, but I know, Umi-chan,” Her smile faded and she looked away, muttering under her breath, “Longing for kindness, being hurt by kindess, I’d never wanted to experience these feelings, I can’t handle them…”

“Kotori-chan…” Umi stared back at her.

“You can’t even claim it’s just a song,” Kotori shook her head, “Anemone Heart. Somebody who hurts people who try to get close… Except for the right people,” She turned her head again to look up at the ceiling of the train, “That was our duet, Umi-chan. You knew even then… How alike we are. You reached out to me, and I ignored you then. I’m sorry,” She turned to face Umi again, and forced another smile, “You don’t have to pretend. Even if you are fine, right now… I know you haven’t always been.”

“But I _am_ now, Kotori-chan,” Umi sighed, crossing her arms, “I’m just worried. I’m really worried. Can you… Can you promise me that you’ll be okay? Don’t do anything rash?”

“Yeah,” Kotori nodded, giving her a soft smile, “I can definitely do that, Umi-chan, but can you promise me that you won’t?”

“Of course,” Umi looked away, “What would I even do?”

“I don’t know,” Kotori shrugged, giggling as she stood up with the train grinding to a stop, “But, I have to get off the train now, so I can’t keep making you promise…”

“Good luck,” Umi sent her off with a wave, then turned her attention back to the bag in her lap, clutching it closer to herself. Kotori had done her best to assuade Umi’s concerns, but she couldn’t help feeling worried like this. However, she was at least out of the realm of approaching a panic attack out of fear for the well-being of her friends.

The remainder of the trip was uneventful, and Umi ignored the world around her in favor of reading articles on her phone, pointless things to keep her mind off of the situation at hand. Just a distraction until she arrived at the stop for Nico’s college.

Once the train pulled up at that stop, she stood up and wandered over to the door just before it opened, then stepped out onto the platform and looked around. Was this the station where she’d been injured? Last time, she hadn’t made the connection, but chances were… it was. Umi stepped over towards the wall, then looked out over the tracks as the train pulled away. It was hard to tell if the stains on the walls were of foul origin, but…

Her stomach turned, and she squeezed her eyes shut. No. She couldn’t stand to think about what had happened. Even if she was probably where it had gone down, it was a jarring thought. She turned away to leave the station, practically running away from the scene. She was holding the bag at her side now, and it hit her legs as she moved. She bumped into someone’s shoulder, and they stared after her as she went. Her feet slapped against the stairs, and she knew people were watching her, looking at her funny. Wondering what a young girl was doing, running through a subway station in tears.

She stopped only when she reached the dormitory building, stopping in front of the door to lean over and catch her breath, heaving. After Kotori had done so much to try and calm her down, she just had to go and let her thoughts get ahead of her and plunge her right back into that same panicked dread. She stood up, slowly locking her knees, and took one long deep breath to calm herself before she walked in. Up to the door, only to find it was slightly ajar. Just the amount that it was an accident, that someone had just barely stopped it short of latching, but nonetheless, there it was. She reached out and pushed it open.

It only took a moment for Umi to take in the situation. To see Nico sputtering, head pushed underwater in a sink filled to the brim with soapy bubbles that were almost certainly a product of shampoo, face down and lying on the kitchen counter, and to take action. The bag dropped from her fingers, but by the time it hit the ground she’d clenched them again into a fist, and in tandem with the sound of the bag crashing onto the floor she pushed off into a run across the short distance between the door and the kitchen-

And punched Nico Yazawa’s roommate in the face.


End file.
